Heath case jury deliberates

Denis J. O'Malley

Published 11:46 pm, Friday, October 11, 2013

DANBURY -- The eight men and four women who will decide whether John Heath is a murderer who covered up his wife's killing for 26 years or is a sick, old scapegoat left the question unanswered Friday after their first full day of deliberations.

Heath, of Bridgewater, is 70 and has been wheeled into Danbury Superior Court to hear the testimony in his murder trial for two weeks. Assistant State's Attorney Warren Murray presented testimony that painted Heath as a husband who murdered his wife, Elizabeth, in 1984 to avoid losing his Newtown home and daughter in a divorce.

Heath's defense attorney, Frank O'Reilly, meanwhile pointed a finger at Heath's late father, who he said was an aging, alcoholic child molester with a bad temper, living in his son's barn on Poverty Hollow Road. Elizabeth Heath's skeleton was found buried beneath the barn in 2010.

It is a case that can hit all the marks of a prime-time crime drama, but on Friday whatever excitement was to be had consisted of intermittent trips into the courtroom, where the jury re-heard recorded testimony.

Among the segments of testimony revisited Friday was that of LuAnn Chevalier, Heath's half sister, who, during her time on the stand last week, recalled a moment not long after Elizabeth Heath's reported disappearance in 1984.

Not long after Elizabeth Heath's disappearance, Chevalier found herself with John Heath in the area of the barn where Elizabeth Heath's remains would later be found buried. She said she smelled something dead.

"I said to him `John, something smells dead in here' and he said `Well, maybe it is something dead,' " she said in the recording heard Friday.

For all the gravity of the situation, little fanfare or emotion was visible in court Friday, and only a handful of relatives and reporters were in the audience. A conclusion will not come until Wednesday at the earliest, when the jury is to resume deliberations at 9:45 a.m.